Spector Prosecution on the Defensive

Before going on the offensive, the team in charge of prosecuting Phil Spector is looking to shore up its defense.

The Los Angeles District Attorney's Office filed a motion Friday to keep Spector's lawyers from dragging Lana Clarkson's name through the mud, stating that the defense is planning to mischaracterize the late actress as "the kind of person who might kill herself."

According to documents filed by Deputy District Attorney Alan Jackson, three potential defense witnesses have called Clarkson depressed, suicidal, belligerent and clutzy—statements that are "riddled with speculation, improper opinion, and hearsay," he wrote.

One of the potentials, a former friend of Clarkson's named "Punkin Pie" Laughlin, initially denied that her pal was suicidal, Jackson stated, but Laughlin has apparently changed her tune since then.

"She now claimed that the victim was trained to handle guns because of her movie roles, felt humiliated by her job as a VIP hostess at the House of Blues, used Vicodin recreationally and twice told Punkin Pie that she wanted to kill herself," Jackson wrote, adding that Laughlin also told the D.A. that she was planning to write a book about Clarkson.

"It contradicts Punkin Pie's previous statement at the time of the crime that the victim was never suicidal, and it follows Punkin Pie's development of a financial interest to assist the defendant," the motion reads.

There is no word, however, on why Laughlin goes by "Punkin Pie."

Also possibly motivated by money is potential witness Jennifer Hayes, per Jackson's filing.

Hayes, who's currently trying to sell a celebrity interior-design reality series, "paints the victim as a selfish, 'belligerent,' heavy-drinking 'amazon' who was 'like a man,' 'a total sex kitten,' and lived a 'sorted [sic] life of one-night stands,'" the motion states. "Hayes also says that the victim was a depressed unsuccessful actress and a 'horrible' stand-up comic who 'didn't handle rejection' and felt humiliated by her job as VIP hostess at the House of Blues."

In a second motion, Jackson argues that all of Hayes' testimony should be barred because the defense "intentionally withheld" her statement until Mar. 11, just eight days before jury selection began and well after the deadline for turning discovery materials over to the prosecution.

Spector attorney Robert Blasier denied that charge, telling reporters, "We've been careful of trying to get the discovery materials to them as soon as we make a decision that we may call a person as a witness. That's what triggers the discovery. The fact that we may have talked to a witness three years ago doesn't mean that we will call that witness…There are no subterfuges going on."

Finally, a third potential witness, playwright John Barons, described Clarkson as a "rude, unfunny prima donna who intimidated those who worked with her," Jackson wrote. "He says she is 'accident prone and clutzy' and the kind of person who would 'put the gun to her head and pull the trigger as if to say, 'See, nothing will happen.'"

Akin to the other alleged profiteers, Barons is planning to adapt Clarkson's story for a play he's working on called Brentwood Blondes, per court documents.

The prosecution's motion sheds a glint of light on what sort of defense Spector's team will be offering up as the trial gets under way in the next couple weeks.

The famed Wall of Sound creator has denied that he shot Clarkson in the hallway of his Alhambra mansion on February 3, 2003, eventually claiming that the Barbarian Queen star pulled the trigger herself. An officer who was at the scene later testified before a grand jury that he heard Spector tell police, "I didn't mean to shoot her. It was an accident."

Spector's camp, meanwhile, filed a motion Monday seeking to introduce emails from Clarkson to a friend in which the actress talks about her career frustrations.

Per court documents, Clarkson wrote in October 2002, I "wish I was busier with paid acting work. Tons of follow up mailings and paperwork to do, but the depression level I am experiencing due to major financial difficulties, makes me feel extremely spent and worn out."

Then, in December, she wrote, "Over here things are pretty bad. I won't go into detail but I am on the verge of losing it all. Just hanging on a thread ..." Later that day, however, Clarkson wrote to a different friend a letter that expressed her excitement over being cast as Marilyn Monroe in an upcoming project.

"Just when things seemed to be looking up for her, on a date between January 10, 2003, and the day of her death, Lana Clarkson was fired from her dream role of playing Marilyn Monroe," the defense's motion reads. "The effect of this chronology of events on Lana Clarkson's state of mind as of the early hours of February 2, 2003, is of key importance to this jury and should not be taken out of their hands."

"We do not offer this information to just denigrate Ms. Clarkson's memory," the defense states.

On the other hand, Jackson wrote in the prosecution's motion that, also through the aforementioned trio of witnesses, the defense will try to use the medication Clarkson took to treat migraines as a sign that she was depressed.

"There is no evidence that Lana took these medications for depression, nor that she saw a psychiatrist, psychologist or counselor. None of the defense experts is a psychiatrist, psychologist or counselor. Therefore this testimony would be outside of their area of expertise, and inadmissible as expert opinion."

The prosecution is also trying to put a stop to allegations that Clarkson was a drug addict, based on an unfinished memoir found on her computer in which she admitted to having used cocaine when she was younger, and to the defense's plan to screen sexually suggestive clips involving gun play from Clarkson's TV and movie appearances in an effort to show the actress knew her way around a firearm, according to court documents.

"The most obvious point, however, is that the victim, in each of these scenarios, is acting," Jackson wrote. "She is in scenes created by others, speaking lines written by others, and conducting herself as directed by others. Those characters are not Lana Clarkson any more than Sir Anthony Hopkins is Hannibal Lecter."

While Superior Court Judge Larry Fidler mulls all this over, a hearing is scheduled for Tuesday on various other motions, including the prosecution's request to allow testimony from Spector's ex-girlfriend that would help establish the producer's alleged fondness for gun play, as well as testimony from a retired New York police officer who claims he once heard Spector saying, back in the 1990s, that all women "deserve to die."

Other motions in the works include one filed Thursday by the D.A.'s Office asking that the defense be ordered to disclose all of the compensation, monetary or otherwise, it is giving to any potential expert witnesses (forensic, medical, etc.), arguing that the info is necessary so that the prosecution can properly prepare for cross-examination.

Also throwing their hats into the mix last week were crime lab employees from the L.A. Sheriff's Department who do not want to be on TV during the trial. (Fidler has already granted the media, including Court TV and other 24/7 networks, full access to the upcoming court proceedings.)

The crime scene specialists' safety could be compromised if their identity is made public, a motion filed on their behalf by L.A. County counsel argues, as they are "often assigned to work on extremely sensitive cases regarding violent individuals and violent criminal street gangs."

Kelli Sager, an attorney representing the Associated Press, the Los Angeles Times, CNN and Court TV, told the AP that there is no ground to restrict the media's access based on such speculative concerns.

"Such a generalized fear is so speculative and broad that it could be used to shield the identity of every law enforcement witness in every case," Sager said.